Physical Media in a Digital World

We consume more and more of our media digitally. Whether it’s movies and TV shows via Netflix, catch-up TV services, YouTube, or streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. These are all convenient enhancements to our modern lives, and I make copious use of all of them. I watch YouTube while eating my breakfast, stream Apple Music while writing, stream my favorite TV shows at night. I also admit that I’m partly to blame for the death of cinemaAre You Responsible for the Death of Cinema?Are You Responsible for the Death of Cinema?Cinema is in its death throes. But why? Do we blame the directors of crappy films? The alternative viewing options now available? Or are you personally responsible? Let's figure this out.Read More.

This probably goes some way towards explaining why I’ve held onto the hobby of collecting records for so long. It’s the last physical medium that I gain any pleasure from these days, and it’s the analog nature of the recording that’s the main appeal. Records are needlessly big, with equally large covers that celebrate the album art in a way that digital mediums do not.

They’re susceptible to physical damage, and they wear out over time. You have to contend with dust buildup and static electricity, and even your turntable requires a degree of maintenance. You’ll have to change the stylus every 500–1000 hours of listening, set up new cartridges correctly, and balance the tonearm using a counter-weight. At some point you might even need to recalibrate an old turntable so that the platter spins at the correct speed.

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All of this hassle pushes a few buttons inside my head. I grew up playing with LEGO, under-exposing photos on film, and dismantling old VCRs. If you feel like you miss physical interaction with media and entertainment and also happen to love music, you might also enjoy the “mechanical” hobby of collecting and playing records.

Here are a few reasons why.

Collecting Vinyl Is an Organic Process

Digital music discovery sucks. Generally speaking you know what you’re looking for, you type it into the search box and hit Play. You may find a few related artists to explore, but these get more and more obscure the further down the list you move. My personal “For You” tab on Apple Music suggests albums I’m already well-acquainted with, and most other suggestions are more miss than hit.

Digging for vinyl records is a much more organic process. You never know quite what you’ll find, and this maintains a flicker of hope inside you that it’s always worth one more look, one more crate, or one more shop. A similar thing could be said about shopping for clothes in thrift stores or buying second-hand books.

Through record stores I’ve not only discovered albums that fit my current tastes, but I’ve developed a fascination with random genres that I’d never have approached before. This is because the media is physically there in front of me, begging to be listened to with unbiased ears. And all of the best record stores will have listening stations for you to use, so you can try before you buy.

If you’re really serious you can even get cheap and cheerful portable players like the Sylvania ($27) which will fit comfortably into a bag.

Vinyl Helps You Embrace the Strange

As a result of the often random and disorganised nature of digging through crates of records in a dusty old shop, you’ll likely come across some outright weird and wonderful records. It would be easy to dismiss these were they not right in front of your face, and many such records have never been committed to CD let alone modern digital formats.

To prove the point: I’ve just discovered the world of Japanese soundtracks from the late 1970s. These are mostly anime, with a few dramas mixed in for good measure. I have never visited Japan, and I’m not a huge fan of anime either. I picked one up because of the amazing cover art, but it wasn’t until I listened to it that I realized how much incredible jazz, funk, and soul was to be found on these albums.

With a steady stream of Japanese vinyl heading into a few local record shops, I’m enjoying my journey down the rabbit hole of TV shows I’ve never even heard of before. There are many other peculiar genres and releases that might catch your eye: library records (used for sound effects and backing tracks to TV productions), spoken word, television and radio recordings, test records, white labels, breaks and DJ tools, and children’s records to name a few.

Some of these cost me $50, while I have picked others up for just a dollar, which brings me to another point.

Finding Vinyl Diamonds in the Rough

It’s a great feeling finding something in a thrift store or clearance bin for pennies, which is why I check the local charity shops on a regular basis. Whole record collections are often donated to charity, and they’re sold for a fraction of their worth. Experience has taught me that the vast majority of these records will be terrible, scratched, and missing sleeves.

However, you still never know what you’re going to find. It might be a classic album that’s dear to you, a cheesy single from the 80s being sold for 50 cents, or something random you decided to take a chance on.

A few of my favorite charity shop finds include “Highway to the Danger Zone” (the theme to Top Gun) on 45, the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera playing Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsodies” and a “teach yourself” Italian spoken word LP from 1969. None of these cost me more than a dollar, and they all sound great.

Vinyl Loves Digital

Physical media can’t compete with the incredible power of digital distribution in a world of fast internet speeds and plentiful hard drive space, and fortunately it doesn’t have to. There’s room for both vinyl and digital music in your life, particularly considering almost every new vinyl record sold today comes with a code for a digital download.

A physical collection isn’t meant to replace your digital habit, whether you’re streaming music from Spotify or buying songs on Bandcamp. I listen to digital music all day, because I’m not going to carry records around with me for listening on the go. I don’t really buy many new albums on vinyl either, unless it’s for emerging artists on small or self-run labels. Digital does everything I need in this regard.

Based on personal experience, most small bands seem to prefer vinyl over CD for selling their wares, especially at gigs. This may seem like an odd choice but it speaks for the popularity of the medium, considering production costs are higher when it comes to vinyl.

A Word About “Warmth”

This isn’t a “why vinyl is better4 Reasons Why Vinyl Is Better Than Digital4 Reasons Why Vinyl Is Better Than DigitalGreetings, peasants! What, still listening to MP3s? Look, as someone who knows more about music than you, I think it's my duty to tell you there's a better way. It's called vinyl.Read More” piece, it’s about encouraging you to explore the world of music in a way you haven’t done before. I haven’t mentioned anything about vinyl sounding better than other mediums, because objectively it doesn’t. The perceived sound quality of a recording is often down to the mastering, and the medium makes little difference.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a part of the world where record shops are plentiful, where thrift stores are full of bargains, where garage sales happen every weekend; you’ve got a great opportunity to expand your musical repertoire. So why not start your vinyl collection today?!

What was the last vinyl record you bought? Do you understand the enduring appeal of vinyl? Or are you happy streaming all of your music from Spotify or Apple Music? Please let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments below!

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Brad M

April 6, 2017 at 12:02 am

I Love vinyl. I have been collecting since 1984, the same year I bought my first turntable. I have in the neighborhood of 800 albums, and feel the pain whenever I move from one town to another. I can't get into the streaming mode, I do download new music though. I've received so much pleasure over the years from going on those hunting trips. Thanks for the great article and the trip down memory lane.

Amazon recently had an exclusive new album from classic rocker Meat Loaf that was autographed if you pre-ordered. As a long-time Meat Loaf fan, I jumped on that. Artistic covers, liner notes, and an autograph from the performer - these are all things that you can only get with albums and CDs, not with MP3 downloads. And depending on the album you might also get the MP3 for free anyway, so it's the best of both worlds.

Yes. Let's make listening to music painfully inconvenient, using media and equipment that degrades in quality with each use, in a difficult to store, breakable physical package. Fantastic!

I have a great audio setup. I still buy plenty of discs, especially since a lot of the music I like isn't sold in digital delivery systems. I care enough about my audio to put acoustic treatments in my living room and I can and do play SACDs and DVD-audio discs. I'm old enough that I lived through the transition from 8 track to cassette to CD to each of Sony's stupid proprietary formats. I'd stop listening to music entirely before I moved back to LPs. Discs get scratched. They warp. They break. If you like one, you'll wear it out. The physical ritual of putting a disc on and reading the liner notes just isn't worth the hassle. Let it go. Please.